Hear Indo-Australian Artist Janaki Easwar’s Reflective New Song ‘I’ve Been Waiting’

From singing in raag Kamas on The Voice Australia to confidently capturing the essence of Billie Eilish with a cover of “Lovely,” singer-songwriter Janaki Easwar has leaned on her Indian and Australian upbringing without any hesitation. While she quickly became a sensation in Australia after wowing coaches like Keith Urban, Rita Ora and Jessica Mauboy in 2021, she’s spent her recent time making in-roads into India, with televised performances in Kerala.

The 12-year-old says her parents—Anoop Divakaran and Divya Ravindran—introduced her to Indian music and she began to learn Carnatic vocals when she was five. Now, on her trip to India as a musician, she’s had the chance to engage with the country’s music culture in a direct way. “When I came here, I got to learn more, because there’s connections. Obviously, I really love it. It’s my culture. The more I learned, the more interested I become, and the more I want to explore different areas of [Indian music].”

In addition to this, she’s just released her new English single “I’ve Been Waiting.” A pop/R&B informed song that’s occasionally melancholic but ultimately introspective in a positive way, the song was produced by Los Angeles-based Rich Fayden and Jeff Wells. It follows up singles such as “Clown” (which was produced by India-based Alan Joy Mathew aka The RedMoone), “Ocean Eyes” (her collaboration with guitarist-producer Sumesh Parameswar) and more. Easwar says about working with a range of producers, “I do have a set idea in my head, I want it to be produced like this. And this is the vibe I’m going for, these are the instruments, I want that kind of thing. But sometimes, since I’m not a producer, I don’t know how it’s gonna sound. In the end, it’s really great to get their input and like to hear like the explanation as to why it might sound better like this.”

Among the decisions that she’s taken as an artist is to allow herself to blend her Indian and Australian vocal styles. She points to fellow Indo-Australian pop artist Ashwarya and how she’s a “big inspiration,” having followed her from the time they were both part of singing academy JAANZ. “There are a lot of Indian artists that are released western music and stuff around the world that I listened to. One of them would be Raveena,” Easwar adds.

The artist’s upcoming songs include Indian influences on show, but Easwar doesn’t want to give much away at the moment. “We tried to incorporate a little bit of Indian classical instruments to make it sound different. We can show the world that it’s not really like, you don’t need to stick to one sound. And there’s no such thing as right and wrong,” she says. There are more projects with Indian artists, collaborations with singers, plus a few covers coming up with Parameswar and a song where Easwar is leading with Carnatic vocals. There’s also a track called “Bittersweet” with Australian producer Stuart Brander. “I’m still getting to know how all this works. And experimenting with, working with different people and trying different sounds,” Easwar says.

Listen to ‘I’ve Been Waiting’ below. Stream on more platforms here.